Pravin had sent incriminating SMS to Pramod: Munde

Mumbai, Apr 11 (UNI) Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary and slain BJP leader Pramod Mahajan's brother-in-law Gopinath Munde told the court today that few days prior to the assassination, Pravin Mahajan had sent an incriminating SMS message to his elder brother.

Mr Munde, who deposed as witness today, told the court of additional sessions judge S P Davare that around six days prior to April 22, when Pramod Mahajan was shot at, Pravin had sent an SMS to Pramod which read, ''Aab na hogi yatra, aab na hogi yachna, aab raan hoga. Jeet hogi, ya aant hoga (Now, there will be no more pilgrimages, no more sufferings. Now, there will be a battle. Either it will lead to victory or to an end).

Mr Munde, during his examination-in-chief, said Pramod Mahajan had showed him the SMS message, at which he (Mr Munde) had assuaged Pramod Mahajan and told him not to worry as he would talk to Pravin about it.

Soon after Mr Munde told the court about the SMS message, the prosecution sought time from the court till tomorrow to further investigate into this aspect.

Prior to seeking time till tomorrow, special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam wanted the court's permission to discuss the matter with Investigating Officer for five minutes. The wish was granted. After the break, Mr Nikam returned with an application which he submitted to the court.

Thereafter, Mr Nikam sought the court's permission for more time, till tomorrow, to further investigate the SMS aspect.

He told the court that the Investigating Officer had seized three mobile phones -- one of Nokia with BPL company's SIM card and two Reliance mobile phones (one with camera and another without camera).

''Now, we want to investigate whether the SMS was sent or not by the accused to the deceased and to collect the documents from the mobile companies,'' Mr Nikam said.

When Judge Davare specifically asked why this did not come on record or IO did not know about it, Mr Nikam replied ''No sir, that is why we need time for further investigation.'' Earlier, in the examination, Mr Munde said the incident occurred on April 22, 2006, at around 0745 hrs, after which he took Pramod to P D Hinduja Hospital. He signed some hospital papers to conduct the operation upon Pramod.

When the hospital papers were shown to him, he identified the same.

Mr Munde further said on way to hospital, Pramod had told him 'Me ase kay kele jene Pravin ne mala golya marlya' (what I had done because of which Pravin shot at me).

He also told the court that prior to the incident, Pravin had demanded Rs one crore from Pramod. He could have fired the bullets at him (Pramod) for the sake of money.

The Examination-in-chief will continue tomorrow.

UNI